“As human beings, we are created to be together. ‘Me myself and I’ does not work. It's ‘me, myself, and us’ that works. For me, community is the solution for everything. And that's on the personal level, on the collective level and the society level.” - Kemo Camara
Kemo Camara was not sure why we decided that he would be a good guest on this podcast, but you’ll find out why soon enough…
Kemo is a community guy, through and through. As the founder of Omek, a community platform for biculturals of African descent, his goal is to transform this generation of bicultural and even more importantly, the next generation of bicultural leaders into transformational leaders.
Being bicultural can become a competitive advantage and, if leveraged properly, a superpower. Pairing that with growing leadership skills, society will become a better place, in Kemo’s powerful vision.
You can read about this conversation below, but if you can, have a listen to the podcast audio (with the player above or in your podcast app) to hear the laughs, really get Kemo’s grounded passion, pick up his engaging vibe, and more. It’s hard to make that come across in the text.
We write this article to make the podcast accessible for people who don’t process information through audio - as a way to be inclusive - but if you can, listening gives you the richest and most complete experience.
Kemo feels that he is one of the most privileged human beings on earth. Born in Guinee in a large family with nine siblings, he grew up in a huge compound with 30 up to 50 people at any moment. He recognizes this as the natural ‘human technology’ that he lived in, where he had his mom and dad, aunties and uncles, big brothers and sisters, cousins, and everybody knew their place in a system based on respect. Growing up in that space, he was immersed in the idea of community: one for all, all for one. The whole family was there to support each other and contribute to the system.
“It was never about me. You just focus on: how can I contribute to this space? I realized that everything that I am today, my mindset, the way I operate, all come from there, that human technology.” - Kemo Camara
The awareness Kemo lives by is that the best way to help yourself is by helping others. When he supports other people to succeed, what he feels is an immense internal joy. This became the genesis of Omek: bringing people together.
The idea behind human technology is basically this ability for humans to work together towards a common purpose, a shared understanding and common vision, a common set of values, where everybody knows their place within this bigger system that operates in the most effective, efficient, and organic way. Omek amplifies the results of this human technology of community by combining it with digital technology.
Based on this, the concept of Omek is bringing biculturals together who have this shared experience, shared vision, and shared mindset from a psychographic perspective. People with a shared bicultural lived experience, Kemo says, will understand their shared problems better than anybody can commit to and get empowered to solve them together. This is a way of bringing people together to solve not only their own problems but society's problems.
“As human beings, we are created to be together. ‘Me myself and I’ does not work. It's ‘me, myself, and us’ that works. For me, community is the solution for everything. And that's on the personal level, on the collective level, and the society level.” - Kemo Camara
During the COVID years, the community helped Kemo in a strong and life-affirming way, and at firs,t he didn't understand why until he remembered that the best way to help himself was by helping others. Vivian agrees that in this period Omek was an important part of her journey too, to connect with other people, but also being helpful, mentoring and coaching others so that they can see more of themselves in other ways.
“I can see it in the DEI professionals who sometimes are isolated, where they need community so that they don't think that whatever challenges or barriers they are facing, they are the only one who are facing it. It helps to have a shared perspective or shared experience so that you see you are not alone in this journey.” - Vivian Acquah
Kemo explains that being bicultural, if you know how to leverage it, can become a competitive advantage. However, it can also become a disadvantage if you don't know how to leverage it. You may come to see your bicultural identity as a disadvantage because you're always being told that you don't belong here through remarks like “Where are you from? But, where are you really from? I know, I know, but where are you from exactly?”
Essentially, once you have a community that is on the same journey as you, speaking the same language that you do in terms of these experiences, and you see them navigating in a different way, this can lift a weight off your shoulders and let you see that you’re not alone. You’re not crazy. You have a support system. This is why community is so important, so crucial. And growing this community is the challenge Kemo is currently taking on.
“Realizing there are so many people out there that desperately need this space, and they don't realize this exists, can even exist. So, my biggest challenge is how do we reach as many of these people who are looking for this kind of space as possible, to invite them to join. That’s our challenge now, creating a lot more awareness and growing that so we can make a bigger impact.” - Kemo Camara
At the end of the day, DEI is about community, in Kemo’s view. Organizations bring different people from different backgrounds, experiences, and cultures together, to reap the benefits of diversity. Then they find out that using only their business principles and mindset won’t make that work. It may actually create more problems than they had before.
Kemo sees that what is essentially happening here is that the organization brings a community together, and what is needed here is a community mindset. He works with organizations that align with Omek’s values, willing to come in and contribute, to be part of the movement, the change that he and his team are creating. Organizations come to him curious to find out, ‘Hey, what are you doing? Can we be part of it?’ And he gives them the privilege to join and to contribute to the work that Omek is doing.
“All I need to do is to find the right people that have this right mindset and are already creating this change, bringing that together so we can leverage and harness our collective resources and skills.” - Kemo Camara
Vivian adds that it helps to speak the language of those business decision makers. One of the things that she often names is that the global workforce right now is creating a revenue that many companies are happy with, based on 23% that is fully engaged. Yet, imagine what will happen to revenue numbers if you can bump up the engagement to 30% or even 40%.
“That's where I see that Omek can add that extra value: people who are happy, are fully engaged, they can go the extra mile.” - Vivian Acquah
As biculturals, we are millions of us out there, Kemo reminds us. He envisions a future shift in how companies engage with bicultural talent. Rather than the current model where companies individually headhunt and spend significant resources to recruit bicultural employees, he sees a future where strong, unified bicultural communities will change this dynamic.
As these communities grow stronger and their members fully embrace their bicultural competencies as strengths, companies will need to gain the privilege of accessing this talent pool. They will realize they must be part of the movement to access this talent: only then will they have the ability to tap into this community. That's part of that mindset.
“As a community, if you come together and you genuinely solve problems and companies start seeing this, they start hustling and working so hard to invite this talent to come into their space.” - Kemo Camara
The transformation will happen when bicultural communities unite and demonstrate their collective value, and when the community members fully recognize and leverage their unique competencies. The power dynamic will shift from companies choosing talent to communities choosing which companies to work with.
“Then this talent, this real talent will also have understood the power of their bicultural identity, how they became a lot more productive because they can leverage their creativity and all of these bicultural competencies.” - Kemo Camara
Ten years from now, this is going to be the norm, Kemo envisions. As Omek and other similar communities grow and come together, they will start realizing: we don't need you to include us into your space. We're going to create our space and we're going to work together. We're going to empower ourselves, understand the value that we provide to society, and do that on an even bigger scale. Then all of us can contribute together as part of the solution conversation.
“It’s the mindset of people that have a lot to offer in terms of leadership, talent, contribution, skills and strengths. Positioning, believing, and knowing that is really strong. It sets a very strong message and vision.” - Marjolijn Vlug
Kemo is aware of a long list of bicultural competencies: skills that emerge naturally from living in and understanding two different societies, including their verbal and non-verbal languages. Bicultural individuals develop these unique strengths through their daily experience of navigating multiple cultures seamlessly.
Creativity: drawing solutions from different cultural toolkits when facing challenges. Empathy: a deep understanding of different societal perspectives. Cultural Intelligence: knowing how to navigate and connect across different cultural spaces. Innovation: the ability to create new approaches by combining elements from multiple cultures. Interpersonal skills: enhanced people skills from cross-cultural interactions. Adaptability: natural flexibility in adjusting to different environments. Resilience: comfort with change as a constant state. And nuanced thinking: the ability to hold and work with opposing viewpoints rather than seeing things in black and white.
Kemo highlights that when these natural competencies are combined with leadership skills, they create an exceptionally powerful combination for success. The key is recognizing and intentionally developing these inherent strengths rather than seeing biculturalism as a challenge to overcome.
“If you develop this, and then you’re given leadership skills, there's nothing you can’t do.” - Kemo Camara
Once bicultural people develop this community and this mindset, and recognize the power of bicultural identity, once they start to know who they are, and they start to understand their value, their worth, they can go in any room and talk to anybody. And in addition to that, they can contribute so much more than they are doing right now.
“These are rough diamonds that I found. I'm gonna polish them and you're gonna see it. I go to a company with this kind of mindset: these are your future employees. These are your future consumers. From bicultural communities, the fastest growing segment of the world population.” - Kemo Camara
When you have this empowered bicultural community talking about themselves like this, seeing themselves like this, it completely changes the conversation.
Currently Kemo lives in the Netherlands with his wife and kids. He is explicitly proud of his family. He is also proud of having this vision and seeing it materialize. He doesn’t take these things lightly and is grateful for them every single day.
Kemo recharges his batteries when he’s around the right people. Every single Omek event energizes him immensely. Seeing people talking, connecting, looking happy, he feels lucky that this is what he does for a living. And he is an optimist. Even though he sees pessimism in the world, despite all that, he believes we'll be okay because there are plenty of people working on making this world a better place for everyone.
“I think that work is happening. We may not all see each other, but there are more and more of us out there making this happen. I am very optimistic by nature. I think society will be a better place. I think this movement is going to pick up.” - Kemo Camara
There are so many amazing people in our community. Kemo feels the privilege to see and talk to all these people individually. He sees that people in the right positions have this feeling too and want to be part of something that's bigger than themselves. Consistently having this conversation is what keeps him happy.
“You are seeing it. You're seeing this community grow in size, and you're seeing this community grow in strength. That's a good fact to base optimism on.” - Marjolijn Vlug
It's not one but hundreds of people that are doing things in their own space, who are coming together, happy to be here. Getting connected and seeing other people makes them feel even more empowered and inspired to do bigger and think even bigger. That's exciting to see. These conversations are happening. Those spaces are being created.
Kemo extends his invitation to you to join the Omek community: whether you're of bicultural Asian, American, or European descent, it's a similar experience. You will fit in. Omek has a lot of people from different backgrounds, and is also welcoming anybody who is not bicultural but does align with these values and vision. This is not a space where you compete with other people. It is about finding the people that align with your mindset. This space is open for you to come in and build this better place for all of us.
“Join Omek. I'll be the first one standing at the door and welcoming you. Come on. Welcome to the family. Let's go.” - Kemo Camara
As human beings, everything for us is built on relationships. Kemo warmly recommends you to find other people in your space who align with the way you see things, creating community so that you can support each other and build together. Community is the solution, for your mental sanity, your personal and professional growth. Community is in the people around you that make you better, that fill your bucket and support you. Find those kinds of people and maximize your potential. You have the responsibility to do that.
Thank you for joining this journey of growing connection and community. Coming together as change makers, we create momentum, share our challenges and wisdom, make meaning, and cultivate environments where diverse viewpoints are celebrated.
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About Kemo Camara
Kemo Camara is the visionary behind Omek, a community-centric platform whose mission is to amplify the talent, voices, and energy of biculturals of African descent. A social entrepreneur, community influencer, economist, and captivating speaker, Kemo’s journey has spanned continents, with impactful engagements across Africa, the United States, and Europe. He is a firm believer in representation and equal access to opportunities.
His passion lies in activating our collective human potential. That’s why he enjoys bringing people from diverse backgrounds to work together toward a common goal. Kemo believes that the potential of the bicultural talent, especially those of African descent, is massively untapped and, when unlocked, will create empowered professionals who are meaningful contributors to the economy and culture.
Connect with Kemo via
Resources & references from this episode
Podcast: What Now? With Trevor Noah
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